Introduction To

The Eleven Illustrations

Of Ghulam Yahya

Mehr Afshan Farooqi

Sometime during the second decade of the nineteenth century,
Robert Glyn, Magistrate and Judge of the District of Bareilly,
commissioned one Ghulam Yahya "to write the true details of some
of the craftsmen and the names of the tools of manufacture and
production and their dress and manners (folio 2,
recto)."

Ghulam Yahya, who describes himself as the ‘servant of
scholars' and the son of Maulvi Imad-ud-din Lepakni, selected eleven
trades/crafts and wrote an account illustrated with drawings of tools
and paintings of craftsmen and named the book The Eleven
Illustrations.

Whatever could show its face and make itself clear from the canopy
of concealment through observation and investigations was
entrusted to the tongue of the elegantly writing pen. I regarded
this a cause worthy of pride. This book I called The Eleven
Illustrations. (folio 2, recto)

Ket¹b-e-ta¬¹v»r-e-sh»shagar¹n va°hairah
wa bay¹n-e-¹l¹t--¹nh¹ (The Illustrated Book
About Makers of Glassware, etc., and a Description of their Tools)
is the title pasted on the hard cover binding of the manuscript. The
Van Pelt Library of the University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. purchased
the manuscript from Sam Fogg, a rare book dealer of London. It was
advertised in his catalogue as a rare early nineteenth century
cookbook, written in Urdu. There was a painting of a man roasting
kab¹bs on iron skewers over a coal fire to authenticate the
claim of the advertiser. The title pasted on the cover was not
mentioned at all. When the manuscript arrived, it was a slim volume in
good condition, comprising thirty-five folios, including
illustrations. Leafing through it, I quickly realised that it was no
cookbook, though it did contain recipes for kab¹bs, and the
painting of the kab¹b maker was there. The language of the
manuscript is Persian and notUrdu. The calligraphic style is
that of ²hat-e-shikastah, and can be classed as average
student calligraphy. The text itself is not very difficult to read;
but there are seven tables, giving prices of various items of
merchandise which seemed almost impossible to read at first glance.
They are written with a certain casualness, which would make even an
expert of shikastah despair. The prices of the merchandise are
given in siy¹q.[1] Deciphering
those price lists is like solving a complicated jigsaw puzzle,
specially because the author uses a mixed vocabulary, giving Persian
names for some commodities and Indian names for others, making the
reader unsure of what to expect. There are still a couple of question
marks regarding the reading or the meaningful reading of some
words. For example, despite best efforts, I could not find out what
harv» meant. It occurs twice in the price list, once simply
as harv» and again as harv» pØrv», meaning
‘harv»’ from ‘pØrab’ that is the east. The
price list is as unique as it is rare, and makes the ms. invaluable
for scholars. In none of the official records, survey reports,
histories, memoirs, journals or letters relating to the first half of
the nineteenth century, do we come across a price list such as this
one. But more of that later.

Another challenge presented by the text is reading correctly the
list of ornaments manufactured by goldsmiths in those days. Most of
these names are forgotten now, and our vocabulary of names of
different pieces of jewellery has shrunk considerably. A detailed
glossary including these names (which I enjoyed researching) is
appended at the end of this work.

The dating of the manuscript did not present a problem because,
although Ghulam Yahya does not mention any dates, he does give the
name of his patron. While explaining the occasion for writing he
says, "Mr. Robert Glyn Sahib Bahadur Magistrate and Judge of the
District of Bareilly issued forth an order for this ignorant person to
write the true details...(folio 2, recto)." It is thus
easy to fix an approximate date for the work by tracing the career of
Robert Glyn. It appears that Glyn served as Magistrate and Judge of
Bareilly and Bulundshahr from 1818 to 1822.[2] Information about Glyn in the Company’s
gazetteers is tantalizingly meagre. He seems to have written a paper
on prices and wages in Bareilly District, which was published in
"the Asiatic Society’s Journal for 1826."[3] I went through all the volumes of
J.A.S.B., and all the volumes of Asiatic Researches[4] but without any luck in finding Glyn’s
paper. The information offered by Glyn on maximum and minimum wages
is quoted by Conybeare;[5] and we can
assume that Glyn used Yahya’s research as raw material for his
paper. But there is a little problem. The wages Glyn reports are for
the common type of labourers and artisans like field labourers,
herdsmen, barbers, blacksmiths, carpenters, navvies, tailors, masons,
litter bearers, water carriers, none of whom are among the eleven
trades chosen by our author. Still, it is quite likely that Glyn may
have had plans of using the information furnished by Yahya for another
article on crafts in Bareilly District, or simply as a useful study of
resources to be presented to the Company’s Board of Directors for
future investment possibilities.

During the second half of the eighteenth century the English East
India Company began to assume political roles well beyond its
commercial ones. The character of the Company changed from being a
private company of merchants to the administrator of huge areas of
India with a strong military presence. The mighty Mughal Empire,
which had held India's political and cultural loyalties together for
at least two centuries had begun to disintegrate. A variety of
regional rulers emerged, most of them former Imperial Governors who
had entrenched themselves in their provinces and converted their
assignments into hereditary possessions. These rulers repeatedly
clashed with each other and with the Emperor. Still, ultimate
sovereignty, however nominal, was vested with the Mughal Emperor. By
1772-73, the Company moved into the formal position of becoming the
official agent of the Mughal Emperor for the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar
and Orissa.

In the eighteenth century, the district of Bareilly (now a district
of western Uttar Pradesh) was a part of the administrative division
known as Rohilkhand. The tract of land forming the subah or
province of Rohilkhand was formerly called Katehr/Katiher.[6] In the twelfth century it was ruled by
different clans of Rajputs referred to by the general name of
Katehriyas.[7] At the beginning of the
thirteenth century, when the Delhi Sultanate was firmly established,
Katehr was divided into the provinces of Sambhal and Budaun. But the
thickly forested country infested with wild animals provided just the
right kind of shelter for rebels. And indeed, Katehr was famous for
rebellions against imperial authority. During the Sultanate rule,
there were frequent rebellions in Katehr. All were ruthlessly
crushed. Sultan Balban (1266-1287) ordered vast tracts of jungle to be
cleared so as to make the area unsafe for the insurgents.

The slightest weakening of the central authority provoked acts of
defiance from the Katehriya Rajputs. Thus the Mughals initiated the
policy of allotting lands for Afghan settlements in Katiher.[8] Afghan settlements continued to be
encouraged throughout the reign of Aurangzeb (1658-1707) and even
after his death. These Afghans, known as the Rohilla Afghans, caused
the area to be known as Rohilkhand.[9] The
Mughal policy of encouraging Afghan settlements for keeping the
Katehriyas in check worked only as long as the central government was
strong. After Aurangzeb’s death, the Afghans, having themselves
become local potentates, began to seize and occupy neighboring
villages.

Ali Muhammad (1737-1749) captured the city of Aonla and made it his
capital. He rapidly rose to power and got confirmed in possession of
the lands he had seized. The Emperor created him a Nawab in 1737, and
he was recognised as the governor of Rohilkhand in 1740. Ali Muhammad
was succeeded by Rahmat Ali (1749-1774), whom he appointed
h¹fiz or regent on his deathbed. Under Rahmat Ali Khan,
Rohilla power continued to rise, though the area was torn by strife
amongst the rival chieftains and continuous struggles with the
neighbouring powers, particularly the Nawab Vazirs of Awadh,[10] the Bangash Nawabs[11] and the Marathas.[12] The combined forces of Shuja-ud Daulah,
the Nawab of Awadh and the Company’s forces led by Colonel Champion
defeated Hafiz Rahmat Ali Khan in 1774. Rahmat Khan died in battle,
his death finally closing the chapter of Rohilla rule. Rohilkhand was
handed over to the Nawab Vazir of Awadh. From 1774 to 1800, the
province was ruled by the Nawabs of Awadh. By 1801, the subsidies due
under the various treaties for support of a British force had fallen
into hopeless arrears. In order to defray the debt, Nawab Saadat Ali
Khan surrendered Rohilkhand to the English.

The change of the power structure did little to soothe the troubled
strife torn area; rather the change had the effect to aggravate a
precarious state of affairs. There was a general spirit of discontent
throughout the district. In 1812, an inordinate enhancement in the
revenue demand[13] and then in 1814 the
imposition of a new house tax caused a lot of resentment against the
British. "Business stood still, shops were shut and multitudes
assembled near the courthouse to petition for the abolition of the
tax."[14] The Magistrate, Dembleton,
already an unpopular man made things worse by ordering the assessment
to be made by a Kotwal. In the skirmish that took place between the
rebel masses and the sepoys under Captain Cunningham, three or four
hundred people died. In 1818, Glyn was posted as Acting Judge, and
the Magistrate of Bareilly, and the Joint Magistrate of
Bulundshahr.

The city of Bareilly was founded in 1537 by Basdeo, a Katehriya
Rajput. The city is mentioned in the histories for the first time by
Budayuni who he writes that one Husain Quli Khan was appointed the
governor of Bareilly and Sambhal in 1568. The divisions and revenue of
the district fixed by Todar Mal were recorded by Abul Fazl in 1596. In
1658, Bareilly was made the headquarters of the province of
Budaun.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, we find the Company
moving from the position of being ‘official agents' of the Emperor
to becoming rulers of the provinces themselves. The Court of Directors
now began to evince some interest to inquire into ‘the condition of
the people and the resources of the country'. In 1807, the Court of
Directors commissioned Francis Buchanan to carry out a survey of the
provinces subject to the Presidency of Bengal. Buchanan was directed
to collect information about the general topography of each district;
the condition of the inhabitants, their religious customs, the natural
products of the country like fisheries, forests, mines and quarries;
the state of agriculture, the condition of landed property and
tenures; the progress made in the arts, manufactures and commerce, and
every particular that can be regarded as forming an element in the
prosperity of depression of the people. The survey took seven years to
complete and its findings were transmitted to England in 1816. Though
the findings of the survey were not published, a few copies of the
report were "sent to our civil servants in India, especially
those occupied in the collection of revenue."[15]

The type of information offered in our manuscript suggests that
Buchanan’s survey may have inspired some civil servants to collect
information on similar patterns in areas within their jurisdiction. So
we have Glyn asking Ghulam Yahya to write an account about craftsmen,
the names of tools of manufacture and production and their dress and
manners. Yahya chooses eleven trades which must have been the most
popular means of livelihood in and around Bareilly in the 1820s. The
trades are glass manufacture, manufacture of glass bangles,
manufacture of lac bangles, crimping, gram parching, wire drawing,
charpoy weaving, manufacture of gold and silver thread, keeping a
grocer’s shop, making jewellery and selling kab¹bs.

Ghulam Yahya’s account emphasises the description of tools. The
text is supported with meticulous drawings of tools, all neatly
labelled. Methods of production are described but not in much detail,
"because a complete description would cause a lengthy
discourse." The dress and manners of the craftsmen are generally
mentioned in a routine and perfunctory style, though the descriptions
are occasionally peppered with interesting bits of information. For
example, Yahya’s observations on the type of jewellery the women
folk of different communities wear gives a quick economic portrait of
that community. Perhaps the most important piece of information that
Yahya provides is on the prices of the various kinds of merchandise
and goods. He gives the cost of manufacture and then the sale prices
of each item that he discusses. He also gives us a very good idea of
how much a particular craftsman/ tradesman could earn for a days
work. With the statistics he provides, one obtains a fascinating
picture of the economic condition of craftsmen in a micro-economic
zone of India in the first few decades of the nineteenth century.

The first "illustration" is that of manufacturing glass
(k¹nch). The account is brief and accurate. We know of its
accuracy from the fact that Montgomery Martin’s description of
glass manufacture corroborates that of Yahya. But Yahya’s
description of the process of making different kinds of coloured glass
like grass green, deep blue, mauve, is not as detailed and slightly
different from what we find in Martin.[16] It is also uncritical. Yahya could have
compared the quality of the indigenous product with the imported
expensive glassware from England and elsewhere. Clearly, Yahya is out
of depth here. He is more informative about other crafts. Martin
describes k¹nch as a kind of coarse glass. From Martin we
learn that the cheapest and most easily made glass is black, which is
perfectly opaque. Grass green, deep blue and mauve glass are somewhat
diaphanous. Glass manufacture was a very important occupation in
those parts in the nineteenth century, and this is supported by
Conybeare’s report. He writes:

The manufacture of glass is certainly the most peculiar, and after
that of sugar the most important. The glassware produced by the
manih¹rs finds its way for sale as far as a special
depot at Calcutta. Nearly the whole of the Ganges water which
myriads of pilgrims yearly convey from sacred Hardwar to all parts
of India is carried in flasks made here. In bottles from the same
workshops are stored the less palatable draught of the native
druggist. The manihar works with tools of the roughest
kind, in an amalgam of reh and salt petre. The art of clarifying
he has not learnt, and his glass is a brittle compound of a
greenish brown hue. But with a little instruction he might
produce bottles such as to supplant in expensive articles now
imported from England.[17]

The experiment of starting a glass manufacture factory was tried in
1868 by a European; but it failed.[18]
Similarly, an attempt by the British Government to produce improved
tiles failed too.

Martin says that glass manufacturers can not earn more than two
rupees a month and are therefore very poor. Conybeare, giving an
average rate of wages at ten years intervals, starting from 1858,
shows that glass blowers’ earnings actually declined, from an
average of rupees 5/- per month in 1858, to the same amount in 1868,
to rupees 5 and 15 annas in 1878.[19]
Yahya merely says that k¹nch is sold at the rate of one to
one and a half maunds per rupee. He does not say how much the people
of this profession actually earn (though he gives the wages of all
others) and whether it is the price charged by the glass makers
themselves or by dealers and whether glass making and glass blowing
(though both are practised by the manih¹r community) should
be treated as one or separate professions. He does treat bangle making
as a separate profession, more lucrative than glass manufacture. The
Census of 1872 does not even mention glass manufacture or glass
blowers or glass bangle makers in the list of non-agricultural
occupations in the district of Bareilly.[20]

Yahya' s account of glass manufacture is followed by a description
of the manufacture of glass bangles (chØÅ»). He says
that there are three qualities and about twenty varieties
distinguished by different colours; each variety has a distinct name
too. On the best quality there is silver work. He gives prices of the
different qualities and some varieties. He says that a bangle maker
could earn something from one anna to two annas per day and some of
them could even go up to three or four annas per day. So an average
bangle maker’s wage would be rupees four per month and a skilled
artist could earn up to seven or eight rupees in a month.

Yahya’s third illustration and its corresponding description are
about the manufacture of lac bangles. He reports the price of a
"set" (a set is comprised of thirty to forty bangles) of
these bangles as one to two and a half annas. One man in a day could
produce up to four sets. A lakher¹, that is a craftsman who
makes lac bangles, could earn four annas a day or more. Lac bangles,
reports Yahya, are worn by Hindus not Muslims. Lakher¹s are
Hindus while manih¹rs are Muslims. The average wage of a
lakher¹ is more than that of a glass bangle maker.

Yahya’s choice of describing a crimper and his craftsmanship as
one of the eleven crafts has proved more useful to the modern student
than what he may have imagined at the time of writing. Crimpers were
tailors by profession and training. Crimping disappeared by the late
nineteenth century and is not mentioned much even in poetry since
then; although references to it are common in the Urdu poetry of the
eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The word now survives as part
of an idiom used pejoratively.[21] Since
the procedure of crimping involved beating or inscribing patterns on
cloth with a hot iron rod shaped somewhat like a sword, the idiom is
uttu ban¹n¹, to literally beat someone so much as to
leave marks on the body; uttu karna ‘to bother someone, to
fool someone'.

Musahafi (1750-1824) wrote an entire ghazal using the imagery of
crimping with the word uttu (to crimp) as an unusual, quaint
rad»f. I translate some shers from the ghazal to
illustrate the potential of meaning that the idiom implies:

In the 1820s, crimpers were in great demand and the craft fetched
good money. In one day, each of Yahya’s crimpers could earn four to
six annas, and if he was good, he could even earn eight annas a
day. Eight annas a day would mean an average wage of 12-15 rupees per
month. Their women wore gold and silver jewellery, rather than
jewellery made of brass, as was common among the poorer classes at
that time. The Census of 1872 does not include crimping in the list of
non-agricultural occupations in Bareilly District. It seems that the
fate of crimping and crimpers was dictated by the fashion in clothes
at that time which in turn was influenced by the tastes of the ruling
elite. The decline of the local elite and the utter ruin of most of
the Afghan chiefs in the ceded provinces (Rohilkhand in this case)
must have diminished the demand for crimping to such an extent that it
disappeared. Since crimpers were tailors anyway, they must have, one
hopes, reverted to their original profession.

The accounts of Tennant, a clergyman, who passed through the area
in 1799, and Bishop Heber’s narrative of his journey through the
upper provinces of India (1824-25) describe Bareilly as a ruined city
crowded with unemployed, restless Rohilla Pathans. Mr. Tennant
writes:

Bareilly is a large town and is crowded with inhabitants who
loiter or wander through the streets without much appearance of
business. It is probable that the want of protection forces a
great number into town but how they support themselves there does
not admit an easy solution. Few manufactures are vended in a
country where the inhabitants are scanty, and where even these are
so poor as not to aspire at any of the luxuries of
life. Sweetmeats and confections, different kinds of grain and
ornaments for the women, seem a great part of the commodities that
are offered for sale in the shops. Brazen water pots are
manufactured here, but in smaller quantities since the ruin or
emigration of all the wealthy chiefs.[23]

Bareilly is a poor ruinous town, in a pleasant and well wooded but
still a very flat country. The Rohillas are a clever animated race
of people, but devoid of principle, false and ferocious... The
country is burdened with a crowd of lazy, profligate, self-called
suwarrs, who though, many of them are not worth a rupee, conceive
it derogatory to their gentility and Pathan blood to apply
themselves to any honest industry, and obtain for the most part of
precarious livelihood by spunging on the industrious tradesmen and
farmers on whom they levy a sort of "blackmail" or as
hangers on to the few noble and wealthy families yet remaining in
the province.[24]

It is not surprising to find both Tennant and Heber justifying
British rule and directly blaming the Nawabs of Awadh for tyranny and
misrule in these territories. Heber’s account of Bareilly and its
people is uncomfortably similar to Tennant’s and their prejudices
so obvious. While both Heber and Tennant base their judgements on what
they were told by the British officers who happened to be their hosts
(Boulderson in the case of Heber), they saw only what they decided to
see. Their anxiety in laying the blame of the ruin of Bareilly on the
door of the Nawabs of Awadh prompted them to make statements, which
are not supported by facts. In the eighteenth century these very
regions were extremely prosperous. One indication of the prosperity
was the brisk trade in the area. A very large number of
banj¹r¹s carried items of trade between Bihar and Awadh
and Rohilkhand. Agriculture registered a marked improvement. In the
Rohilla country in the Moradabad-Bareilly region, the rise in the
jama (total revenue as assessed) was almost incredible, over
247%. It is also noteworthy that European merchants rushed to these
regions after the Company’s victory over the Mughal Emperor and the
Nawab of Awadh in 1764.[25]

Nevertheless, both Heber and Tennant recognise and admit that the
ruin or emigration of the local chiefs (who were also the patrons of
the local industries) following the establishment of British rule, was
responsible for the decline of many of the local crafts. Maybe Glyn
was somewhat farsighted when he asked Yahya to write an account of
crafts and craftsmen; he perceived the imminent decline of some of
these crafts and wanted the procedure of manufacture to be
recorded. Whether Glyn was interested in reconstructing aspects of
economic life or was investigating the sources and possibilities of
returns on capital investments, or was simply interested in local arts
and crafts, are questions which Yahya could be addressing, but has not
fully addressed.

Gram parchers and their tools are the fifth category of craftsmen
mentioned by Yahya. They were, according to him, "lower class
people." They earned their living by roasting grain and received
no fixed cash payment for their services. Often it was a proportionate
weight to the entire load (of grain) to be roasted for a customer. The
men folk simply wore a loin cloth and the womenfolk’s jewellery was
made of the cheapest metal-tin.

James Skinner"s Tashr»h-ul-Aqw¹m,[26] a voluminous work investigating the origin
of the various Indian people, their manners, dress, mode of worship,
professions, etc. which he caused to be compiled or translated from
"Sanskrit sources into Persian" and presented it to General
John Malcolm in August 1825, gives this interesting description of the
origin of grain parchers:

A man from the Kah¹r[27]
caste disregarding the dictates of religion and tradition married
a Sudra widow...the son that was born of this union
inherited from his father the art of constructing a furnace and
from his mother the skill of roasting grain; in Sanskrit this
profession is called ann bharjak...and in Bhaka,
bharbhujah and bhujwah, that is gulkhan[28]afroz. People of this caste are
by nature deceitful and irritable, they wear extremely dirty and
torn clothes, blackened by the smoke from the furnace.[29]

Buchanan, Tennant, and Heber all pale in comparison to what
Skinner’s Tashr»h has to say about people belonging to
different professions. Blacksmiths are reported to be
"selfish," goldsmiths are "cheats" and
"quarrelsome." Yahya’s language does not contain the
hubris of social critique indulged in by the Europeans, nor does he
speak pejoratively of any of the eleven communities he has
described.

Yahya’s report is extremely important for yet another reason:
the seventh illustration of a pans¹ri’s shop and the
description of the goods sold there, includes a unique price
list of one hundred and four items. A methodical price list giving
prices of groceries, so varied as to include figs, plums, apricots,
asafoetida, honey, gentian, turmeric, mercury, amber, etc., when all
we had so far were prices of grain or at best sugar, salt, butter or
meat.

A pans¹ri, in modern terms, is a vendor of unprocessed
(mufrad) spices, herbs and groceries. Yahya writes:

Pans¹ris sell minerals and dried greens, which are used
in medicines and eaten directly too; and also dried fruits, except
those which are sold by fruiterers... Items from the various parts
of the world have been listed, each separately, and the cost price
and selling price of each item has been brought to the tip of this
pen (folio 15, recto).

The price list comprises 104 items, all listed under separate
categories, arranged into seven tables. The different categories of
merchandise are determined on the basis of the part of the world the
item comes from: merchandise from the Deccan, from the East, from the
mountains, from the West, and finally items which are grown
locally. This kind of categorisation is not only useful in determining
from where those goods are being brought for sale in the markets of
Bareilly, but also offer a comparative study of prices. For example,
the prices of nutmeg, mace, white cardamom, cinnamon, bamboo manna
when categorised under merchandize from the Deccan (See Tables I &
II), are considerably higher than the prices of the same spices as
given in Table IV, and listed as merchandise from the East. Almonds
from Kabul and Dostpur, (now in modern Afghanistan) raisins, currants,
figs, plums, apricots, pomegranates, liquorice, pistachio nuts,
asafoetida, quince and salep were some of the goods from the
West. Honey, wax, turmeric, gentian, catechu, rock salt, and red
pepper came from the mountains. From the East came chewing tobacco,
nutmeg, sulphur, mace, cardamom, cinnamon, betel nut, sandal wood,
coconut, gum, talc, amber, yellow arsenic, mercury, etc. Exclusive to
the Deccan are tea, coffee beans, black pepper, cloves, and blue
vitriol.

Table VII gives prices of "items which are grown here and
lists anise seeds, coriander, chicory/endive, ajw¹in,
garlic, white cumin seeds, tobacco, gum from the Babool tree, red rose
petals (dried), amalt¹s seeds, cowach (red) and lodh
(dried). An important omission is the price of
sugar/jaggery. Sugarcane was the favourite crop in the environs of
Bareilly. There were as many as thirteen recognised. The fact that
tobacco was locally grown is corroborated by Heber; and Glyn attests
to the cultivation of the red rose. Heber makes the following
observation:

Within these two days I have noticed some fields of tobacco, which
I do not think is a common crop in the districts through which I
have hitherto marched. The Hindostane name is
"tumbucco," evidently derived as the plant itself,
through the Europeans, from America. How strange is that this
worthless drug should have so rapidly become popular all over the
world, and among people who are generally supposed to be most
disinclined from the adoption of foreign customs.[30]

Glyn, giving the highest and lowest monthly earnings, writes:

Field labourers (Lodhas, Muraos, Kisans and Kurmis) earned from
Rupees 2 to Rupees 6 and even Rupees 8, when tobacco, roses or
cotton were the subject of culture.[31]

In 1826, a rupee could fetch approximately twenty-three sers of
wheat, thirty-four sers of barely or twenty-seven sers of
b¹jr¹. I give below the quantity of some important
commodities that could be purchased for a rupee.[32] This gives us an idea of the purchasing
power of the rupee in the 1820s:

Wheat
23 Sers

Almonds
1.66 Sers

Honey
3.07 Sers

Tobacco
6.66 Sers

Tea
0.22 Sers

Coarse
Cloth
(in 1858) 4 yards

Gold (in 1858)
0.082 Tol¹

Silver (in 1858)
1 Tol¹

Betel
(Chikn» Sup¹ri)0.8 Sers

Garlic
32 Sers

Raisins
1.33 Sers

Coconut
66 Fruits, w/milk
57 Fruits, dry

We have information on the average wages paid to artisans in
1858. Conybeare provides a list of 22 artisans, ranging from field
labourers to butchers, blacksmiths, tailors, washermen, glass blowers,
dyers, goldsmiths, field labourers, who are at the lowest end of the
scale, earning something like rupees 3.75 per month. Goldsmiths who
are at the highest are earning only marginally better, i.e., rupees
6.32 a month. Glyn gives the following highest and lowest monthly
earnings in his paper on prices and wages.[33]

Labourers
Rs 2-6, sometimes 8

Herdsmen
Rs 2-6

Barbers
Rs 4-8

Blacksmiths
Rs 5-20

Carpenters
Rs 5-10

Navvies
Rs 4-5

Masons
Rs 9-10

Tailors
Rs 4-7

Litter
Bearers
Rs 3-4

Water
Carriers
Rs 2-4

Although the price differentials shown by Conybeare do not carry
much conviction to the modern reader, one fact is obvious: so many
years of Company rule (32 year to be precise) had helped depress not
raise wages all around. A wage of Rs 2 was barely enough to keep one
alive.

An extremely unusual source of prices of luxury goods has been
explored by Professor Naiyyar Masood.[34]
He has put together price lists of different varieties of cloth,
clothes, bedspreads, quilt covers, ink stands, jewellery, sweets,
chewing tobacco, etc. current in Lucknow in the 1890s from the
occasional advertisement that he came across in some books in his
personal collection of rare books and manuscripts. I have appended a
translation of the lists, for not only do they provide us with a
flavour of those times but also a parallel to Yahya’s list, and a
valuable price index. According to Masood's list, a bolt
(than), fancy dress material with gold and silver embroidery,
cost Rs 15 to Rs 25 in Lucknow in 1888. A quilt made of muslin cloth
cost Rs 3, a shirt about a rupee and a pair of paij¹ma or
trousers also around one rupee. Since wages do not show a significant
increase from 1858 to 1878, we can assume that an ordinary man could
only dream of quilts and blankets as does Halku in Premchand’s
(b. 1880 – d. 1936) famous story PØs k» ek R¹t (A
Cold January Night). In the story, Halku, a poor peasant is torn
between the choice of buying a blanket or paying his
debt. Coincidentally he has three rupees which was what a blanket cost
at that time, and he had saved the money pice by pice to buy a
blanket.

Yahya’s description of charpoy weavers and their tools (which is
the sixth illustration in the manuscript), also mentions the several
styles of charpoy weaving and the wages current for them. The styles
are lagpah¹r, chaukar» and
guld¹r. Chaukar» may have been a pattern involving
a grouping of four, or something to do with squares and guld¹r
(which means ‘spotted/flowered') a floral one, but we have no
clue of what kind of pattern lagpah¹r was except that it was
more complicated than
chaukar». Farhang-i-Istil¹h¹t-i-Peshavaran,[35] a compendium of the various crafts of
India and the vocabulary and idioms associated with them, an
invaluable asset for finding descriptions of such terms, unfortunately
does not mention styles of charpoy weaving. Strings used for weaving
charpoys were made from beb, mØnj or k¹ns.
All these grasses were found in plenty in these parts of
Rohilkhand. Yahya mentions the prices of beb and
mØnj. He says that k¹ns was so plentiful that it
was not sold in the market, but obtained free from the fields. Charpoy
weavers seem to fascinate Yahya. He describes their clothes, jewellery
and the food served at their marriages. In a somewhat enigmatic tone,
he writes "only their men drink wine." The charpoy
weaver’s (or khatbun¹ as he is called in the local
parlance) "call" is like a voice from childhood. String
beds, which were rewoven every summer, have been replaced by modern
‘folding beds’ with a nylon weave. The charpoy and perhaps the
khatbun¹ too, still survive in the villages, but the fancy
style of weaving described by Yahya has long been
forgotten.

Another useful skill and an important, economically viable
occupation was drawing wires from iron, brass, silver and zinc. Wire
makers were either ironsmiths or goldsmiths who could be Hindu or
Muslim. The manuscript describes the procedure of manufacturing wires
of different kinds, and there are sharply made illustrations of the
tools involved. There is a painting of a wire maker (t¹r
kash) at his work. Iron wires were used for making needles,
stringing musical instruments like the sitar and the tambura. Silver
wire was used for making silver thread for embroidery, etc. The
craftsmen bought the raw material directly and sold the finished
product at a price, which was just double their cost price. Yahya
quotes the cost price of the material and the selling price of
different qualities of wires.

The ninth craft described by Yahya is the manufacture of various
kinds of fancy thread. According to him, thread for gold and silver
embroidery were manufactured by Hindus and Muslims of good
family. People of "low" communities were rarely taught this
art. He describes six types of silver thread and mentions prices of
different types of thread and the current wages of the thread
maker. The measure for these threads is described as dira',
which was less than a yard. A thread maker could earn from four to ten
annas in a day’s work. Skinner’s Tashr»h describes
thread makers as jul¹h¹s (weavers).

The manuscript now offers an interesting diversion. It shifts to a
description of the various types of kab¹bs and methods of
cooking them. What follows are recipes for the different varieties of
kab¹bs (it was probably the inclusion of these recipes that
caused the misunderstanding leading to the manuscript being described
and advertised as a 'cookbook'.

Yahya says that, in addition to the kab¹bs described by
him, there are numerous other varieties. He mentions the names of
some of them too – but regrets that "this book does not have
the capacity to describe each and every kab¹b in detail
(folio 28, recto)." The following is a list of the names
of kab¹bs mentioned by Yahya. The recipes for the first ten
are given: dampukht, m¹h» kab¹b, kofta kab¹b, pasandah
kab¹b, sh¹min kab¹b, g»l¹ni kab¹b, mur°h
kab¹b, sh¹h pasand kab¹b, b¹ndhnØ kab¹b, baizah
kab¹b, kab¹b-i-Husaini, biranj» kab¹b, miy¹nah paz
kab¹b, mo­» kab¹b.

Yahya now clarifies that the kab¹bs described by him are
prepared by cooks of wealthy people and are not sold in the
market. Why he digresses to include recipes is a question which may
admit of several answers, none of them quite satisfactory. It is an
anomaly, just as the anomaly of having the book titled as
Kit¹b-i-tas¹v»r-i-shish¹gar¹n..., while the
latter are only one and not a very important class of people described
here. Yahya brings in kab¹bs perhaps, because (a) Mr. Glyn
was fond of kab¹bs; (b) as a connoisseur of
kab¹bs, he knew the recipes and could not resist the impulse
to include them; (c) kab¹b making was so different from
glass making, wire making, etc., that he felt it required special
treatment in the text; (d) he included the kab¹bs to make
the ms. more interesting (which is true); (e) the kab¹bs
sold in the market are of such low quality compared to these exotic
varieties that he could not resist the temptation of impressing his
reader. This last explanation, that since high quality
kab¹bs were not sold in the market, and the future reader
could not known about them, seems to be the most plausible. Yahya
clearly wrote with an eye to posterity.

After giving his special recipes, Yahya describes the ordinary
kab¹b, which is simply cow or goat meat ground into a paste
with a liberal mixture of red chillies, salt and, perhaps, other
spices. The paste is stuck on iron skewers, roasted and then
sold. Incredibly, he says that from one ser of meat, one hundred fifty
kab¹bs can be prepared. (This sounds somewhat incredible
given that a ser is roughly two lbs., but perhaps those
kab¹bs were smaller than what they are now.) Fifty cow meat
kab¹bs and thirty goat meat kab¹bs are sold for
one anna. He omits the price of the meat.

The last illustration is of a goldsmith and his tools. There is a
painting of the goldsmith at work. Yahya distinguishes between a
son¹r and a s¹dahk¹r. Both are goldsmiths but
son¹rs are generally Hindus and s¹dahk¹rs,
Muslims. S¹dahk¹rs also craft things other than
jewellery, like fancy boxes and p¹nd¹n (a special box to
keep the various condiments for preparing p¹n, i.e., betel
leaf). They are also expert in working with precious stones. From
Yahya’s account it seems that the "making" charges were
different for different ornaments. For a silver kar¹ and
hansl» the charges were a quarter anna per tol¹;
for a gold kar¹ and hansl»two annas per
tol¹. For a silver arsi, challa,pahunc»,
b¹zubandh and t¹wiz, one anna to two annas per
tol¹ and for the same ornaments in gold it was four to six
annas per tol¹. In 1858, the average "making"
charges were one to four annas per tol¹ for silver and eight
annas to a rupee per tol¹ for gold.[36] A very nominal increase in
"making" charges in a period of thirty-eight
years. Unfortunately, Yahya does not give the price of gold and silver
in 1820. Gold was Rs 16 per tol¹ and silver one or one and a
quarter rupees per tol¹ in 1858. One can assume that prices
would have risen during this period, but this is not reflected in the
wages earned by the craftsmen.

Yahya concludes his report on goldsmiths and his "eleven
illustrations" with a list of names of ornaments and current
weights. This list consisting of fifty-two names, half of which are
perhaps no longer a part of either a modern woman’s or
jeweller’s vocabulary, are certainly of great interest to the
historian and linguist. The technical differences denoted by the
different names for ornaments have been elaborated in the
glossary.

Our knowledge of Indian society during British rule in the
nineteenth century has rested primarily on four sources: (1) the
voluminous records of the East India Company; (2) the works of various
Europeans; (3) the writings of many Company employees; (4) the
accounts of Asians writing in this period. An interesting first hand
and very useful alternative source is accounts of Asians writing under
British patronage or, as in our case, on receiving orders from a
British administrator. The
Kit¹b-i-tas¹v»r-i-sh»shagar¹n wa°hairah wa
bay¹n-¹l¹t-i-anh¹ occupies a special middle space in
writings belonging to this particular genre. Compared to other
accounts relating to professional crafts in the early nineteenth
century, such as Montgomery Martin’s detailed History...,
and James Skinner’s description of the various communities in his
Tashr»h, Yahya's account is brief. It was probably limited
by orders from his patron Glyn, because Yahya often justifies his
brevity by saying that he wants to avoid a lengthy discourse or that
it is not in the nature of this work to give more details. The scope
of Yahya’s work is quite different from that of Martin or
Skinner. Unlike Buchanan and Martin, he does not talk about the
"smallness" of wages, the "wretchedness" of the
dwellings of the wage earners, the "scantiness" of their
food or clothing, the superstitions which "pervade" their
minds, and the "immorality" that debases their
character.[37] His account is
dispassionate, matter-of-fact and nonjudgmental. ro-economic zone, the
district of Bareilly. The account is dispassionate and matter-of-fact.
His emphasis is more on providing a description of the tools, which he
does through drawings and by naming each tool and implement used for
manufacture. This is an important deviation from Martin’s
approach. Martin’s description of manufactures is certainly more
detailed, but he does not describe the tools used by the
craftsmen. Skinner’s Tashr»h is beautifully illustrated
with the most meticulous and endearing paintings of almost all the
craftsmen at work. These paintings show a large number of tools. But
they are not labeled. Most of the tools in the paintings in the
Tashr»h can be easily identified from Yahya’s
illustrations.

What prompted Yahya in selecting these particular eleven
crafts/trades is a question that needs to be addressed. There could
be several answers, the most obvious is that in his eye these were the
most important crafts in that area. But if such was the case, why then
include gram parchers? They can be found everywhere – even in
present times and strictly speaking grain roasting can not be called
an important craft of any area. The same is true for kab¹b
making. A kab¹b maker or a kab¹bch» hails from
the bavarch» community of cooks, and has recipes for
kab¹bs, but professionally a kab¹bch» is as
different from a bavarch» as a crimper is from a
tailor. Kab¹b making and selling is not an important trade,
but a special one. This explains Yahya’s choice of a crimper
instead of a tailor and a kab¹b specialist instead of a mere
cook. If glass manufacture and glass bangle manufacture are important
enough to merit inclusion, why omit glass blowers or makers of
glassware like bottles, phials, etc. which was by all accounts an
important industry in that area. A possible explanation could be the
quality of the product, which was poor, compared to the European
glassware. Yahya decides to include the bangle maker and exclude the
glass blower. The charpoy weaver’s craft is as commonplace as a
gram parcher’s. Yahya himself says that in the village people of
other communities can weave charpoys too. Perhaps his choice of a
charpoy weaver was justified because beb, mØnj, and
k¹ns, which are grasses from which the strings to weave
charpoys are made, grow abundantly in this area. In fact,
k¹ns was so plentiful that no one paid for it. Yahya’s
inclusion of a wire drawer, instead of a blacksmith and a thread maker
instead of a weaver are in conformity with his pattern of selecting
the specialist sub-trade instead of the commonplace one. The choice of
pans¹ri may have been directed by Glyn’s interest in
native drugs (there is a one-line reference to Glyn’s role in
setting up the local dispensary in Conybeare’s report), or his
interest in prices. Goldsmiths and pans¹ris are among the
well-to-do traders.

The Eleven Illustrations therefore presents a random sample
of crafts practised in the Rohilkhand area. From glass making to grain
parching and from crimping to selling kab¹bs and spices and
making gold ornaments, Yahya has covered a wide ground. His cool,
scientific, observational style, make his account so much more
reliable in the bargain. Its apparent lack of human interest is
perhaps its most important asset today, because his text addresses the
"Indian" from a reporter's perspective, and not that of a
person setting up judgements and "standards."

NOTES

[1] Siy¹q is a system of
numeration in which a simplified Arabic alphabet is used but the
symbols employed have no connection with the actual alphabetical order
or the numerical values of the letters of the Arabic alphabet as
described in various systems such as the rule of abjad or
jumal and so on. It was mostly used for book-keeping.

[2] Glyn, Robert Thomas. Date of rank as
Writer: September 27, 1804. 1807 March 11: Assistant to the Registrar
of the Provincial Court of Benares; 1807 September 25: Assistant
Magistrate of the city of Benares; 1810 August 27: Registrar of the
Civil Court of Benares; 1813 April 23: Officiating as Judge and
Magistrate of Bundelkhand; 1814: at home; 1817 August 27: returned to
India; 1817 December 16: Additional Registrar of Meerut; 1818 February
10: Acting Judge and Magistrate of Bareilly and Joint Magistrate at
Bulundshahr; 1819 February 12: Judge and Magistrate at Bareilly; 1823:
at home; 1828: out of service. Cf. Alphabetical List of the Bengal
Civil Servants; ed. and compiled by Ms. Dodwell and Miles, London:
Longman, Orme, Brown & Co., 1839.

[3]Statistical, Descriptive, and
Historical Account of the North-Western Provinces of India;
compiled by H. C. Conybeare, and edited by E. T. Atkinson; Vol. 5;
Rohilkhand Division, Allahabad, 1879; p. 633. Conybeare gives a
footnote on p. 634 in which he says that "those who would pursue
further the subject of prices and wages in this district should refer
to Mr. Glyn's paper in J. A. S. B., I, 467"; page 467 of the
J.A.S.B., Vol. I does not contain this paper.

[4]Asiatic Researches; or Transactions
of the Society Instituted in Bengal, for inquiring into the History
and antiquities, the Arts, Science and Literature of Asia, London.
The first volume in this series appeared in 1788 and the second
followed in 1790. The journal continued to be published until 1839
and them was abandoned. From 1832 onwards, The Asiatic Society of
Bengal began publishing its proceedings as the Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal. It was published from Calcutta.

[5] See Conybeare; op. cit., p. 633.

[6] For more details, see Iqbal Husain,
The Rise and Decline of the Ruhela Chieftaincies in 18th Century
India, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994, chapter 1. "Katiher
by and large consisted of the two sark¹rs Badaun and
Sambhal. Najmul Ghani says that Katiher consisted of the modern
districts of Bareilly, Muradabad and Badaun," p. 4, fn. 25.

[7] When the Ain-i-Akbari was
compiled (c 1595-6), Katiher was largely held by Rajputs of different
clans such as Bachal, Gaur, Chauhan and Rathor. See Iqbal Husain,
op. cit., p. 6.

[8] Iqbal Husain, op. cit., p. 97.

[9] Bahadur Khan Ruhela and Diler Khan
Ruhela were important nobles at the court of the Mughal Emperor
Shahjahan. As a reward for defeating the Katehriyas a perpetual grant
of 14 villages was conferred upon Bahadur Khan who asked his brother
Diler Khan to lay the foundations of a new city. Shahjahanpur was
established in 1647. It became a strong Afghan township where 9,000
Afghans settled, migrating from Roh, the mountainous area south of
Khaibar. They were invited to come and settle by Bahadur Khan.

[11] Farrukhabad was the seat of the
Bangash Nawabs. Muhammad Khan Bangash was the founder of the
settlement. The jagir was conferred upon him by Farrukhsiyar
(1713-19)in 1713 as reward for services rendered by him in the war of
succession.

[12] Nawab Safdar Jung of Awadh enlisted
the help of the Marathas against the Bangash Nawabs. The Bangash
Nawabs sought help from the Rohillasl. The latter were defeated in
1750. The Marathas again invaded Rohilla territory this time
attacking Bijnor in 1759.

[13] See Conybeare, op. cit. p. 677.

[14]Ibid.

[15] In 1837, Montgomery Martin was
permitted to inspect the manuscripts, with a view to selection from
them for publication. Martin edited Buchanan's survey report and
published it in five volumes with the title The History,
Antiquities, Topography and Statistics of Eastern India in 1838.
It's first Indian reprint is by Cosmo Publications, Delhi, 1976. See
Martin's Introduction in Vol. 4, pp. 3-5.

[24] See Reginald Heber, Narrative of a
Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India, Vol. I, London,
1849, p. 243.

[25] Cf. Muzaffar Alam, The Crises of
Empire in Mughal North India, Awadh and the Punjab 1707-1748,
Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1986. See pp. 247-254. For more
details see Chapter VII.

[26]Tashr»h-ul-Aqw¹m,
manuscript no. ADD. 27255 PS/2/6493 at the British Museum. Rotograph
no. 216 at the Library of the Centre for Advanced Studies in History,
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Tashrih comprises three
books or fasls. The first book describes the conditions of the
rulers of India – Shah-i-Hind. The second describes the
condition of the Hindus. This is again divided into four parts. The
first part is a general description of the four varnas. The
second has four sub-sections each devoted to one of the four
varnas. Third and the most important part from our point of
view describes the origin of the various professional castes
aulad-i-vishvakarma. The fourth part focuses on other mixed
castes of Hindus like mendicants and sadhus. The third book
deals with the condition of the Muslims – the ordinary or worldly
people, and those who have renounced the world like fakirs etc.

[27]Kahar is a caste of Hindus
whose profession was to carry palanquins, etc. and to draw water. It
seems the author is confused between kumhar i.e., a potter, and
kahar.

[28]Gul-khan is furnace,
fire-place or stove. Gul-khan afroz is one who lights the
furnace.

[29] See Tashrih, op. cit.,
Bk. II, Rotograph p. 84.

[30] Heber, op. cit., p. 240.

[31] See Conybeare, op. cit., p. 633.

[32] The prices for coarse cloth, gold and
silver are from Statistical, Descriptive and Historical Account of
the North-Western Provinces of India, Vol. 3, edited by
A. T. Atkinson, p. 78. The rest of the prices are from Yahya's
account.

[35]Farang-i-Ishtilahat-i-peshvaran compiled by Malvi
Zufar-ur-Rahman, published by Anjuman-i-Taraqqi-i-Urdu, Delhi,
1941.

[36] See Atkinson, op. cit.

[37] Martin writes in his Introduction
"That a survey containing such materials, offering so vivid a
description of the social aspect of millions of fellow subjects, and
corroborating every useful fact by minute statistics, should have
remained so long in obscurity is indeed to be deplored, and can only
be accounted for by supposing that it was deemed impolitic to publish
to the world so painful a picture of human poverty, debasement and
wretchedness..."